Naupoda (Gonga) burwelli, McAlpine, 2007

McAlpine, D. K., 2007, New Taxa of Signal Flies (Diptera: Platystomatidae) of New Caledonia, Records of the Australian Museum 59 (1), pp. 65-77 : 76-77

Naupoda (Gonga) burwelli n.sp.

Figs 9, 10

Type. HOLOTYPE! (unique), New Caledonia: Pic du Pin site 1, rainforest, 280 m, 22°15'S 166°49'E, 25.xi.2004 – 23.xii.2004, C.J.B., S.G.W. ( PM).

Description. Female (male unknown).

Coloration. Head predominantly tawny to tawny-yellow; postfrons with four small darker marks, blackish ocellar spot, and pale yellow anterior margin; parafacial with grey-brown spot near upper extremity; blackish horizontal stripe crossing face at about lower third and extending on to central cheek region; occiput with broad blackish zone on upper part. Antenna orange-tawny; arista largely brown. Prelabrum and palpus tawny-yellow. Mesoscutum and scutellum predominantly tawny-orange, with brown to blackish markings; humeral callus yellow, with large dark brown central zone; thoracic pleura brown-black, with two pale yellow marks on mesopleuron and smaller tawny marks on pteropleuron and hypopleuron. Legs predominantly tawny-yellow; all coxae partly brown; mid and hind femora with some longitudinal brown streaks; hind tibia with small anterior and posterior brown marks at c. basal third, and with larger blackish anterior and posterior subapical marks; tarsi pale yellow. Wing hyaline, with brown markings as in Fig. 10 ; subapical part of subcostal cell opaque yellow; alula faintly browned; axillary lobe and squama grey. Halter creamy-white. Abdominal tergite 1+2 tawny-orange to brownish; tergite 3 shining blackish with some tawny suffusion; pleural membrane of segments 1 to 3 grey-brown, that of segments 4 to 6 (judging from position of sternites) creamy-white, the two zones quite sharply contrasted; a narrow transverse blackish stripe within pale zone behind tergite 3 apparently covering the minute tergite 4, and, between this and segment 7, a pair of black dorsal spots (doubtfully associated with vestiges of tergite 5 or 6); ovipositor sheath and aculeus tawny.

Head c. 1.4× as wide as high; width of postfrons near midlength 0.35× width of head; height of cheek 0.31 of height of eye; anterior margin of postfrons forming a somewhat prominent rounded ridge extending from eye to eye; face with pair of relatively deep antennal grooves, separated by a prominent, rounded median carina more complete than in other species of Gonga ; the following cephalic bristles well developed: inner and outer vertical, postgenal; fronto-orbital bristle indistinctly differentiated from adjacent setulae. Antenna slightly longer than half height of face; segment 5 asymmetrical, very short, but longer than segment 4; segment 6 with very short hairs, mainly on distal half and basal extremity. Prelabrum moderately small, not attenuated medially.

Thorax. Length of mesoscutum 0.78 of its width; length of scutellum 0.42 of length of mesoscutum; the following bristles present: rather small humeral, 1+1 notopleurals, postalar, rather large posterior intra-alar, quite small dorsocentral, prescutellar acrostichal, two pairs of scutellars, mesopleural, very small but distinguishable sternopleural. Legs: fore femur with numerous short posteroventral bristles; mid tibia with one rather large apical ventral spur. Wing: distal quarter of basal section of vein 4 abruptly attenuated, only slightly curved; second section of vein 5 longer than anal crossvein, bent near mid-length; anal crossvein only slightly oblique, slightly curved; length of discal cell 1.3× that of second basal cell, both measured along vein 4; cell-4 index = 0.63; both second basal and anal cells with extensive bare zones.

Abdomen. Tergite 2 with posterior margin produced into slight median prominence; tergite 3 large and quadrate; tergite 4 apparently represented by minute sclerite within black band; sternites 1 to 3 well developed but progressively smaller in that sequence; sternites 4 to 6 distinct but much smaller.

Dimensions. Total length 4.8 mm; length of thorax 2.7 mm; length of wing 5.5 mm.

Distribution New Caledonia: southern part of Grande Terre.

Notes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. I am grateful to K. Arakaki (BPB), G.B. Monteith, C.J. Burwell, and S.G. Wright (QM) for making available the interesting material described here, and to D.J. Bickel and S.F. McEvey for helpful discussion. S. Cowan and H. Smith processed the manuscript. This work was partly supported by a grant from Australian Biological Resources Study fund.

Figures

Figs 9, 10. Naupoda burwelli. (9) Head. (10) Wing.